Today in Texas we have thousands of people sitting in shelters or hotel rooms wondering how they are going to recover from the devastation Hurricane Harvey left in its wake. Rescue workers have flooded in to take care of the storm-ravaged areas and the brave souls who are now waking up with heavy hearts and decisions by the dozens on what their future holds.

 

Some of them have young children, trying to make life seem “okay” as they sleep on cots and spend their afternoons thinking about their lives before Harvey. As those moms and dads stand  in line with their children to receive a hot meal, how many of them are asking if the eggs are from cage-free hens?

And how many of those who are enjoying a strip of bacon are wondering if the hog that produced that bacon was born in a gestation crate or in a pasture? My guess is none.

And if those chickens and hogs were raised on a local farm in southern Texas, were those chickens and sows left to lay eggs and deliver piglets in the middle of a hurricane with no place to go when the flood waters rose and the storm ravaged the area? Because that’s what the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) wants for those animals. You don’t believe me?

In 2008, California’s Proposition 2 of the Egg Rule, backed by HSUS, was approved by voters who banned the sale of eggs in California unless hens had a minimum amount of space in which to lay their eggs. Shortly after that, the state legislature enacted a statute applying Prop 2 to all eggs sold in California, regardless of where they were laid.

Thank you, HSUS. Now when bad weather hits California or any other state, what happens to those range-roving hens? Instead of being housed in a barn where they are safe from the weather, they are victims to whatever the weather brings.

Too dramatic for you? I’m just looking at it from their point of view.

Last week, HSUS filed to get an initiative on the 2018 California ballot to ban the sale of out-of-state pork produced through  the use of gestation stalls. Again, they not only want piglets to be rolled on and killed by their mothers, they want to govern where California businesses buy their products.

How nice to have a group of folks who have no interest in the viability of agriculture or food business to tell farmers and food providers how to raise their livestock and where they can buy their products. And then, force the price of food even higher.

I wonder how many single parents in California enjoy those high-dollar eggs and thank HSUS every day for watching out for them? Or are they consuming more affordable foods like beans, rice and mac-and-cheese, and skipping the essential nutrients offered in animal proteins on their one-income household?

Will California residents be governed by a loud minority who are only interested in their narrow-minded agenda and bank coffers? Or will they wake up and say enough is enough?

Will they tell the government to let the farmers farm, and that they are smart enough consumers to decide for themselves what they will and won’t consume?

Time will tell.

 

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication.